By Christopher Oliva

Featuring Mr. Fantastic and Tracey

Somewhere…

"Wake up!"

Reed Richards felt a sharp pain against his left cheek that immediately awoke him from his unconsciousness. He instinctively went to touch his cheek and relieve him of the pain, but he found that his hands were tied down by metal cuffs. He quickly tried to activate his powers to break free but his arms remained at its currently length. Before he continued to true and summon his powers, he suddenly felt the device atop his head. As he strained his eyes to look up, all he could make out was a strange metallic device lingered there, along with a red light that flashed occasionally.

Before Reed could continue to examine the situation, he felt another slam against his cheek, this time harder and with a gun. He cried out at the pain and suddenly turned to look at the source of the blow. Standing in front of him, he saw a slender woman, around 5'10. A tight black uniform enveloped her entire body along with a black beret that covered a portion of her long blonde hair. As his eyes scanned her frame, he noticed her eyes had no pupils, but were just an eerie color of ivory.

"Hello, Reed," said the woman, breaking the silence. She held her gun upright and started to load it with shells, "My name's Tracey. Nice to meet you."

"Where am I?" Reed interjected, seemingly uninterested. His eyes dared not to look at anything but her as she pulled over a nearby chair and turned it facing the wrong way. She sat down and grinned as she continued to load her gun.

"In my house," she coyly responded.

"WHERE is your house?" Reed asked, his tone changing. He tried to wiggle free but the metal cuffs were securely fastened.

"Keep wiggling, you're cute when you wiggle," Tracey joked, loading in the final bullet. "And where? Well…we're not in New York City, babe, if that's what you're asking."

Reed grimaced, "Then where are we?"

"In my house, silly," Tracey winked as she moved her chair closer to him, "Now enough questions from you…now it's my turn. I want to know something, Mr. Richards. Do you happen to remember the night of March, the 24th? Approximately seven years ago to get exact."

Reed shook his head, "No, and even if I did, I highly doubt I'd be telling you. I want to know if my wife and children are safe. I want to know..."

Tracey quickly pistol whipped him again before he could continue his sentence, "I thought I made it clear that your question period had ended.

"Now let me remind you of the night, shall I?" Tracey got up from her seat and started to pace around the room, "Your precious Fantastic Four had just finished up cleaning up some random goon's latest attempt at world domination. His name escapes me, but he wore purple if that rings a bell?"

"Wizard," Reed responded, a tint of annoyance was heard in his voice.

"Yeah, that one," she agreed, "Anyway, let me paint you a picture, alright? You and the other members of the F4 are holding this lame press conference and junk and in the midst of it, the Wizard breaks free of your clutches and steals a little girl and her mother from the crowd. Are we getting into familiar territory here?"

Reed remained silent and looked away.

"And with that the boys and girl scout troop quickly sprang into action right back after the…what was it…the Wizard? For whatever reason, the Wizard managed to evade the majority of your team's offence and was looking like he was actually going to escape."

"IT WAS AN ACCIDENT I…"

"But lo and behold, their savior came. Mr. Fantastic, a.k.a., you, slowly peered into view, holding some strange gun type device. The little girl and her mother's fears were vanquished. They're hero had arrived."

Tracey looked down at Reed who didn't return her gaze.

"But," she continued, a vicious look on her appeared, "Mr. Fantastic tripped, shot his gun and a blast of whatever the fuck it was slammed into the little girl's mother, killing her almost immediately.

"The little girl looked in shock, especially the Wizard. The hero had done what he was going to do! There was silence around until Mr. Fantastic suddenly sprang into action, taking advantage and subduing the Wizard until the rest of the Fantastic Four and the police showed up. As they questioned the hero about the mother's death, he did what any noble and honest man would do.

"He lied. He lied and told them the Wizard killed her in a fit of a rage. Of course the Wizard rightfully protested. But who would believe him? A hardened criminal versus a respected and widely loved superhero…? It's hardly a fair fight, don't you agree?"

Reed hadn't looked up at Tracey at all since her telling of the story. His eyes were closed and he took short and steady breathes.

"But what of the little girl, you ask?" Tracey continued, waving her gun to the tone of the story, "Ah, the little girl also pleaded with the cops, but they also didn't believe her. And really why would they? She was probably just in shock, is all, they said. Do you know what that little girl's name was, Mr. Fantastic?"

Reed muttered under his breathe, "Tracey…"

"No. Fucking. Shit." Tracey yelled, slamming her gun into Reed's forehead. He knelt over in pain as far as the metal cuffs would let him and closed his eyes tightly as the bruise slowly started to form. "Tracey got sent over to foster home to foster home. Her father had left the house when she was born and her mother's parents didn't except me as a grand-daughter because I was half black. What a joyous world we live in.

"By the time she was sixteen, she ran away. She stayed on the streets for a year until she started stealing. Eventually she was caught by the cops and she was forced to volunteer into a government program to turn her into an agent to do their bidding. It wasn't as if she had any family to tell her not too, or to try and stop it from happening. So they enhanced her strength, her agility, her eyesight to several levels above human capability. She was trained in covert ops and sent on assassination missions that the U.S. government doesn't want the public to know. But she escaped. She killed several government officials on her way out and has the FBI on her ass."

Tracey took a breath as she sat back down on her chair, "She headed to the Baxter Building right after that. During the night she snuck in and killed the security guards with a quick swipe from her dagger. She made her way un-detected up to the top floor to where Reed Richards slept soundly with his lovely wife and grabbed him as gently as she could. Whilst there she even managed to snag a power dampener that had been in his laboratory…"

Reed strained his eyes again to look up towards the flashing red lighted device attached to his forehead. Tracey chuckled for a moment before continuing.

"To make sure he stayed asleep, she covered his mouth in chloroform until she reached her destination. Do you remember now, Reed? Do you remember what happened on March the 24th? Or is still very cloudy for you to remember?"

"…I'm sorry, Tracey. If it's anything, I am truly and utterly sorry." Reed muttered, finally speaking.

"Sorry doesn't fucking cut it, Richards. You killed my mother that day and didn't even bother taking responsibility for it. I would've thought more from a member of the pristine Fantastic Four but I guess that's only an image, am I right?"

Reed again avoided Tracey's frightening gaze but shook his head, "Believe what you want to believe. Whatever I can offer will never be enough to take back what I did."

"Now you're talking sense," Tracey smiled, getting up from her chair again and kicking it to the side. She pointed her gun at Reed and closed one of her eyes, "Give me one good reason to not shoot you dead right this second."

Reed's eyes welled up with tears as he looked up at her, "My family…my wife, my son. I'll never be able to say goodbye to them."

"Then they'll be in my boat then." Tracey responded.

There was silence for what seemed like an eternity for Reed. As he stared at Tracey, her hand pointing a gun directly at him, Sue's face suddenly appeared in his mind. Her smiling face made him feel at ease as she happily held her newborn Franklin Richards, his son.

That image quickly turned to red as a firing of a gun tore into Reed's stomach. He gasped as he fell to the floor with the chair he was sitting in.

Tracey grinned as smoke emanated from the opening of her handgun. She walked over to Reed as she slammed her foot into Reed's wound, smiling.

"Hurts don't it?" she asked childishly, wiggling her foot on her wound as it was an unwanted cigarette. Reed could only manage to gasp as the only thing his brain would let him was focus on the pain.

"Is….is this…what you reall..y…wanted?" Reed managed to stammer, in between coughs of blood.

"Yes. Yes it is," Tracey answered, pointing her gun towards Reed again, "It feels so good."

She quickly fired two more shots, straight into Reed's chest. The shots echoed throughout the small room as they hit point blank. Reed no longer moved, nor said a word. The deed had been completed.

Tracey lowered her gun as she bent down and checked Reed's pulse. She grabbed the power dampener and placed it to the side as she grabbed his body and placed it over her shoulder.

"Time for the Fantastic Four to get a little surprise…"

TO BE CONTINUED...